Byte-Corseca Stereo Bluetooth Headset (DM5710BT )

The Byte Corseca Stereo bluetooth headset is a China-based Damson Group product. The model number is mentioned as DM5710BT whereas the website lists it as the SBT05. It retails for Rs. 1,500 (on Flipkart.com), but it is not widely available. Dell customers usually get this headset free with their laptops.

The cheap plastic construction and small, inferior audio driver units makes the headset quite lightweight. The neck band isn't smooth so it will pinch your neck when you let it hang. It can be folded into a smaller size.

Cheap plastic buttons adorn the right earpiece - 5 in total. There is the centre multifunction key and the surrounding volume up, volume done, next track, and previous track keys. When pressed while the headset is worn, the keys emit a loud mechanical click sound that hurts the ears. The multifunction key acts as the power key, the call key, and the play/stop key. 

This Bluetooth headset supports the bare minimum of HFP, HSP, and A2DP Bluetooth profiles as it is Bluetooth version 2.1+EDR compliant. That means it can be used as a handsfree device with your phone, a headset with your Bluetooth-enabled computer, and as a pair of headphones for audio.

Conclusion:

Rs. 1,500/- for Damson Group's Byte-Corseca DM5710BT Bluetooth headset is too much. The poor sound quality is akin to the sound produced by Rs. 200 earphones. There is no bass and the volume is low. The microphone transmits background noise the other person will not be able to hear you properly. The headset uses, perhaps without paying royalties, the outdated miniUSB and Bluetooth 2.1 standards as opposed to the more common microUSB port and the power-efficient Bluetooth 4.0. Product support is vague and no service centre addresses are given. That said, there is better quality and more features to be had from product offerings in the same price range from popular brands such as Samsung and Nokia. The Byte Corseca BT Headset can be given a miss. It is better suited as a freebie with new Dell laptop purchases.

The Big Chill Cafe

Have you ever had sausages in your chicken soup?
Boiled potatoes instead of french fries?
A bone sticking out of your grilled chicken?
Or a $4 dollar mini-brownie?

Have you ever been served by overly casual, inattentive staff?

No?

Then get your Big Bill at the Big Chill Cafe, New Delhi!

You could try the ravioli, "Angry Chicken Pasta", or the "Portuguese Piri Piri" grilled chicken - complete with an unsightly bone. The "Squidgy Chocolate Mousse" is decent. However, they don't serve lasagne - hold on, no lasagne? Which cuisine is this restaurant serving?

The prices are quite high and contrary to the relatively young crowd's budget at Rs. 500 a dish and Rs. 220 for pastries (without taxes). So don't be surprised to see people sharing a dish.

The ambience is a mismatch of posters of movie classics and randomized pulse-pounding background music. Unfortunately, they use only split ACs and not centralized ones so don't sit at table in front of a chilly draft. Don't go too early to the restaurant (noon) or you might be eating while staff are mopping underneath your table.


Or, you could wait (maybe forever) for Candies, Mumbai to come to Delhi.


Meal for two with drinks : Rs. 2,000

The Airtel 3G Conundrum

I tried Airtel 3G and I have to say this is one ISP I can do without. Mid-January I decide to to go for their 1 GB - 28 day plan. I don't know why they don't make it for a standard monthly payment but I won't bother emailing them because of their ineffective and indifferent customer service which I'll get to later. 

I started testing speeds with SpeedTest.net. The speeds at first were decent with 2+ Mbps but the upload speeds raised eyebrows at only 200 kbps - an issue that still persists. For 3 days I get similar speeds and an occasional loss of connectivity. It was still relatively more reliable than the existing 2G plans they offer. It worked with YouTube videos and app downloads but I couldn't help feeling that the connection was being denied or capped for bigger data downloads. Three days later, the speeds disappear and I'm left with a rather unusable connection that refuses to send/receive data. That the connection is established is clearly shown by a "3G" sign on the iPhone 5. I initially thought this was a problem with the device but varying speeds over the week ruled this out. I figured this would be an ISP problem.

I'm no stranger to capped speeds. I can recall having to call Airtel and have them send a technician to look into why I was getting only 512 kbps when I paid for a 2 Mbps fixed line connection. The technician made a phone call to the "node" and did a confirmatory test on SpeedTest.net (this is why I quote SpeedTest.net results) and lo! The speed was restored. 

This happened thrice in one year.

Back to Airtel 3G.
I had not altered any setting on my phone but the speeds dropped to sub-40 kbps speeds and 50+ kbps upload speeds. The download and upload speeds were mismatched. The lowest point came with a ping of 1770 ms which made the connection unusable.

I emailed and talked to Airtel customer support but their responses were perfunctory. Even with prodding their responses were along the lines of "there are no problems with the backend server". Of course, traffic shaping and speed capping are deliberate functions, not problems for Airtel. If it's a policy to give suspiciously 2G-like speeds on a 3G plan, then that's not a problem for Airtel. After numerous complaints and a lot of shouting, I got a call (despite explicitly telling them not to call me) that the problem had been "resolved". What was resolved? I'll paraphrase. "No idea", they say ("Get Idea", I say [:P]). A resolution was provided for problem they said never existed.

I told them it was too late for I had already deactivated 3G.


In fact, I don't bother with their 2G services either. I use Wi-Fi. Yes it's limited but hey, it works.

Note: Speed is only part of the story. Reliability is important. A connection which only works in bursts of speed is not reliable especially for downloads, streaming, and transactions. Also, when checking a connection, don't just load a site, go deeper within the site - at least three links deep. Even if you can, you'll still need to check if you're able to access an app store and download an app from there.

Food for thought: Why does Airtel insist on voice correspondence instead of email correspondence?